One of Damien Hirst’s most defining artistic innovations, Edith is an immaculate example of Hirst’s butterfly monochrome painting series. An embodiment of his revolutionary and philosophically rich aesthetic practice, the present work eloquently transmits Hirst’s obsession with the dichotomy of life and death, natural and artificial, the beautiful and the grotesque.

A panoply of butterfly species are scattered across a pastel pink, gently perched on the heavy layers of household gloss paint. Dotting the canvas are white cubic gems of different shapes and sizes, sparkling and glistening as light reflects from its translucent mass. Laying beside the cheap cubic gems, the delicate iridescence of the butterfly wings and its natural fragility juxtaposes the sharp light of the industrially cut, mass produced cubic. This invites the viewer to contemplate the lasting beauty of their wings against the transience of their life, poignantly illuminating the perishability of their existence in their enshrinement within the artificial pink gloss. Presenting a series of dualisms within the pink confines of the canvas, Hirst explores the complex relationship between art and nature, of the organic and artificial.

From the sixteenth century still-life painters whose fine brush strokes captured the intricate patterns of the fluttering wings, to Jean Dubuffet who collaged the iridescent specimens as “found objects” on his canvases, butterflies have long been a source of artistic inspiration and fascination. A perfect example of life, death and physical transformation from an unattractive cocoon to a graceful creature, the butterfly forms a core part of Hirst’s artistic vocabulary. Hirst’s use of exotic butterflies dates back to his first solo exhibition in 1991, In and Out of Love. The exhibition took place in an empty shop split over two floors. Downstairs, Hirst presented his first series of monochrome butterfly paintings alongside ashtrays containing cigarette butts, the inherent natural beauty of the butterflies juxtaposing the chemical toxicity of the cigarettes. Upstairs, white paintings with pupae of Malaysian butterflies glued to them were hung around the space. Butterflies would hatch and flutter around the room, feeding on nectar from pot plants before eventually dying. Presenting life and death for all to witness and experience, butterflies were a potent symbol for both the beauty and fragility of life, and occupies a central space in the artist’s prolific oeuvre.

Eternally suspended against a pastel pink plane, their delicate beauty is both blissfully celebratory and tenderly morbid. As stated by Hirst: “Then you get the beauty of the butterfly… The death of an insect that still has this really optimistic beauty is a wonderful thing” (Damien Hirst in conversation with Mirta D’Argenzio, in: Exh. Cat., Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Damien Hirst, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Selected Works from 1989-2004, 2004, p. 83). In encouraging the viewer to focus on the extraordinary – yet fragile – beauty of the natural world, Edith perfectly encapsulates Hirst's continued spiritual and philosophical exploration into the vulnerability and transience of life.

《伊迪絲》是達米恩·赫斯特的藝術創作中最具代表性的作品之一，是其蝴蝶單色畫系列中的精品。這幅畫作體現其革命性和富有哲學意義的美學實踐，清楚傳遞出赫斯特著迷於生與死、天然與人工合成、美與醜的二元關係。

不同種類的蝴蝶散佈於一片粉紅色之中，輕輕棲身在厚重的家用光漆上。綴於畫布上的還有形狀大小不一的白色立體寶石，透明的石體反射光線，讓寶石閃閃發光。寶石是大量生產經工業切割而成，蝴蝶躺在廉價寶石旁邊，脆弱的翅膀折射出柔和的虹暈，映襯石面反射的刺眼光芒。兩者的反差引發觀眾思考，蝴蝶翅膀持久的美對照牠們短暫的生命，淒美地點出牠們脆弱易逝，卻被永遠珍藏於人工合成的粉紅色光漆中。赫斯特透過連串封存於粉紅色畫布的二元對比，探索藝術與自然中有機物和人造物之間的複雜關係。

從十六世紀靜物畫家以細膩筆觸描繪蝴蝶翅膀的精細紋理，到尚·杜布菲將蝴蝶翅膀當作「現成物」在畫布拼貼物象，蝴蝶長久以來都是創作人的靈感來源，引人遐想。蝴蝶從醜陋的蟲蛹破繭成蝶，是經歷生死和形態蛻變的完美例子，更是赫斯特的藝術語彙中必要的核心部分。他最早利用異國的蝴蝶創作，可以追溯至1991年他舉行的首場個展「愛與不愛」。展覽在一間分上下兩層的空置店鋪展出，在下層展場，他展出首個蝴蝶單色畫系列，並特意在畫作旁邊擺放盛載煙頭的煙灰缸，以蝴蝶與生俱來的自然美態對照香煙的化學毒素。上層的展場則掛滿黏有馬來西亞蝴蝶蛹的純白畫幅，蝴蝶脫蛹而出後在場內四處飛撲，吸食盆栽植物的花蜜，最終死在展場。蝴蝶讓大家親眼見證和感受生與死，是代表生命美好卻脆弱的有力象徵，在赫斯特豐富的作品中佔有重要席位。

蝴蝶被永遠懸掛在粉紅色平面前，牠們柔弱的美既令人感到幸福，又展現嬌嫩的病態。正如赫斯特表示：「然後，你擁有了蝴蝶之美……這種昆蟲在死後仍然保持如此令人喜悅的姿態，實在美妙至極。」（引自達米恩·赫斯特與米爾塔·達根齊奧對談，錄於《達米恩·赫斯特：痛苦與狂喜，1989–2004作品選粹》展覽圖錄，國家考古博物館，那不勒斯，2004年，頁83）《伊迪絲》鼓勵觀眾聚焦於大自然中非凡卻脆弱之美，完美概括赫斯特不斷就生命的脆弱短暫，進行心靈和哲理上的探索。